


Easy For You To Say

by tardisjournal



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: AO3 1 Million, Community: who_contest, Gen, Humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-16
Updated: 2014-02-16
Packaged: 2018-01-12 15:22:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,015
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1190085
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tardisjournal/pseuds/tardisjournal
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Eleventh Doctor can't pronounce 'Raxacoricofallapatorius'. It just doesn't roll off his new tongue. Weirdness ensues.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Easy For You To Say

**Author's Note:**

> Written For the who_contest challenge: “Impossible”. Inspired by this prompt from “eleventy_kink: “The Eleventh Doctor can't pronounce 'Raxacoricofallapatorius'*. It just doesn't roll off his new tongue. And it shits him.”
> 
> Originally posted at LiveJournal 02/08/13 but somehow fell through the cracks and was never posted here. Rediscovered just in time for the 1,000,000 fics milestone! Congratulations, AO3!
> 
> For reference's sake, a mash-up of Who characters giving that tongue-twister a go is here: [Raxacoricofallapatorius.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cm1yqsWZO_k)

The Doctor ran a hand through his untidy hair and frowned. Since the new “Mr. Pond”, aka Rory, had officially joined him and Amy on the TARDIS full-time things had been going swimmingly—until now.  
  
The TARDIS had seemed happy to have not one but two companions aboard. She had gone out of her way to keep the rooms in predictable places and ensured that a variety of delectable scents, from fresh-baked biscuits to Gallifreyan grass, wafted through air in a way the Doctor hadn’t experienced since Jack Harkness had been a passenger. A lot of the troublesome knocks and pings he had always assumed were just an inevitable part of her function had miraculously disappeared, and on their last two trips she had taken him exactly where he wanted to go.  
  
So why did that blinkering red light above his head refuse to stop, well, blinking? He had no idea what it meant, why it had come on, or how to shut it off. All of his attempts at troubleshooting had failed.  
  
"What are you doing, old girl?" he whispered under his breath. There was no reply--from the ship, that is.  
  
"Doctor?"  Amy looked up from where she had been fiddling with her phone, pretending to play a game but surreptitiously trying to take photo of the Doctor masterfully flying the TARDIS while her husband looked on. (So far they'd all come out blurry, as the Doctor never seemed to stand still for an instant.) “Everything O.K. over there?”  
  
"Eh? Oh!" He pulled his gaze away from the light, glanced at Rory to ensure that he was still watching with a properly awed, open-mouthed expression on his face, and flashed Amy a dazzling grin.  
  
"Everything's fine. Wonderful! Brilliant, even!"  
  
“Alrighty then, if you say so,” Amy replied. She wasn’t convinced, but knew the Doctor well enough by now to know that when he used that many words to describe the same thing, he wouldn’t be budged from his position easily. She glanced back down at her phone.  
  
The Doctor made a show of checking a monitor off to the side.  
  
“Ah, look at that! We’re almost there,” he declared. He spun it around so that it faced the other two. "See? There's our target!"  
  
Two human heads swiveled upward to peer at the monitor.  
  
“Our target?” Rory sounded doubtful.  
  
“Yes, our target! Our destination! Our goal!”  
  
“I know what a target is,” Rory said, an irritated note creeping into his tone. “But all I see there is a bunch of squiggly lines.”  
  
"Exactly! Look for the most squiggly one. That’s the one we want.”  
  
Rory glanced at Amy, who shrugged.They both peered at the screen again. The Doctor took advantage of their distraction to cover the blinking red light with some duct tape.  
  
 _‘There, problem solved,'_ he thought, sighing audibly in relief.  
  
“So where are we headed, anyway?” inquired Rory.  
  
“Ah! That’s a good question, Rory. Glad you asked. It’s a lovely planet, with the most dazzling burgundy seas you could ever hope to see. Bit chilly, owing to the fact that it has four Polar Regions instead of the two that you are used to, but as we’re just popping in to collect some information from one of my undercover agents and not staying over, that shouldn’t be a problem. It’s called RaxiCARi… wait, that’s not right. It’s called RaxiCURi… darn it!”  
  
Amy’s eyebrows went skyward.  
  
“RaxiCORifo…. I mean RaxiFORico—wrong!” The Doctor slapped himself on the cheek.  Amy and Rory exchanged another glance.  
  
“Raxafor-agogo… confound it!  It’s this new regeneration. I’m still working out all the kinks. And I didn’t mean that like it sounded!”  
  
Amy giggled.  
  
“Raxacorico-fallacious! Oh, I give up. It’s impossible. Just have a look for yourselves.”  
  
The Doctor tapped a button on the monitor and map of the planet came up. Every key geographical landmark had labeled in what looked like a child’s scrawl. Printed shakily across the top of the screen was the planet’s name.  
  
“Oh. Raxacoricofallapatorius," said Rory.  
  
“Ha, ha! Good one, Rory!” Amy laughed.  
  
It was the Doctor’s turn to stare open-mouthed. “Yes, good one Rory. That’s it!”  
  
“Oh come on!” Amy said. “You can’t tell me he got it right. On the first go?”  
  
“I can because he did. He got it right. On the first go.”  
  
“Really?” Amy shoved the phone in the pocket of her denim miniskirt, walked over to Rory, and kissed him in the cheek. “That’s my husband—handsome _and_ clever.”  
  
Rory blushed and looked down at his trainers.  
  
“But how did you know that, love?" Amy wanted to know.  
  
“Yes, Lov--Rory? How did you know that?”  
  
Rory shrugged, acutely aware that they were both staring at him. Amy’s gaze was affectionate, the Doctor’s as close to awed as he’d ever seen. He stood up straighter.  
  
“Nurse, remember? Guess all those nights pouring over those multi-syllabic Latin terms finally paid off.”  
  
The Doctor stared at Rory a moment longer.  
  
“Right! Well, we should be at Raxa--our DESTINATION—any minute.  Amy, would you go fetch the kit I prepared? It’s just outside the console room.”  
  
He waited until she was nearly out the door to drape a friendly arm around Rory’s shoulders, causing the younger man to jump in surprise.  
  
“Say Rory? Ever hot-wire a hovercraft? No, of course you haven’t. How about a 1981 DeLorean?”  
  
“Um, no? I did take a VCR apart once to see how it worked, though.”  
  
“Good for you! How did that go?"  
  
“Well, there were a few bits and bobs left over, but I managed to get it working again.” The Doctor was still looking so impressed, Rory decided to leave out the part where it only ever played at double-speed after that.  
  
“Perfect! I’ve got this blinking light thingy here that can’t be nearly as hard to sort out as getting a VCR to stop flashing ‘12:00’. What do you say we take a quick look at it before we land?”  
  
Amy smiled as she stepped into the hall, pleased with how well her boys were getting along.  



End file.
